Access Management 7.2.2

GSMA Mobile Connect

GSMA Mobile Connect is an application of OpenID Connect that facilitates the use of mobile phones as authentication devices independent of the service provided, and independent of the device used to consume the service.

Mobile Connect thus offers a standard way for Mobile Network Operators to act as general-purpose identity providers, providing a range of levels of assurance and profile data to Mobile Connect-compliant Service Providers.

In a Mobile Connect deployment, AM can play the following roles:

  • The OpenID provider role, implementing the Mobile Connect Profile as part of the Service Provider (Identity Gateway interface).

    As OpenID provider, AM responds to a successful authorization request with a response containing all the required fields, and also the optional expires_in field. AM supports the mandatory ID Token properties, though the relying party is expected to use the expires_in value, rather than specifying max_age as a request parameter.

    In addition to the standard user information returned with userinfo, AM as OpenID provider for Mobile Connect returns the updated_at property, representing the time last updated as seconds since the epoch.

  • The Authenticator role, implementing the Mobile Connect Profile as part of the Identity Gateway (Authenticators interface).

    In the Authenticator role, AM ensures that users authenticate at the appropriate Level of Assurance (LoA). A Service Provider can request LoAs without regard to the implementation, and the Identity Gateway includes a claim in the ID Token that indicates the LoA achieved.

    LoA support

    In AM, LoAs map to an authentication mechanism. Service providers, acting as relying parties, request an LoA by using the acr_values field in an authentication request.

    AM returns the corresponding acr claim in the ID token.

    LoA support:

    • 1 (low - little or no confidence)

    • 2 (medium - some confidence, as in single-factor authentication)

    • 3 (high - high confidence, as in multi-factor authentication)

    LoA support does not include support for 4, which involves digital signatures. Therefore, the dtbs authorization parameter is not supported when requesting tokens to the authorization endpoint.

Perform the steps in this procedure to set up the OAuth2 provider service:

Configure AM for Mobile Connect

  1. Configure an OAuth2 provider service in the realm.

    See Configure the OAuth 2.0 provider service.

    Mobile Connect is an extension of OpenID Connect. Therefore, review the additional configuration options shown in OpenID provider configuration.

  2. Go to Realms > Realm Name > Services > OAuth2 Provider.

  3. Configure OpenID Connect authentication context settings for AM to return acr and amr claims in the ID tokens.

    For information and examples, see Add authentication requirements to ID tokens.

  4. Go to Realms > Realm Name > Identity Stores > Identity Store Name > User Configuration.

    The user info endpoint returns updated_at values in the ID Token. If the user profile has never been updated updated_at reflects creation time.

    When using DS as an identity store, the value is read from the modifyTimestamp attribute, or the createTimestamp attribute for a profile that has never been modified.

  5. Add the relevant attributes to the LDAP User Attributes list, and save your changes.

    You can now use OpenID Connect with Mobile Connect. As per the specification, you must use the Authorization Code flow to request ID tokens.

    Supported authorization parameters
    Request Parameter Support Description

    response_type

    Supported

    OAuth 2.0 grant type to use. Set this to code for the authorization grant.

    client_id

    Supported

    Set this to the client identifier.

    scope

    Supported

    Space delimited OAuth 2.0 scope values.

    Required: openid

    Optional: profile, email, address, phone, offline_access

    redirect_uri

    Supported

    OAuth 2.0 URI where the authorization request callback should go. Must match the redirect_uri in the client profile that you registered with AM.

    state

    Supported

    Value to maintain state between the request and the callback. Required for Mobile Connect.

    nonce

    Supported

    String value to associate the client session with the ID Token. Optional in OIDC, but required for Mobile Connect.

    display

    Supported

    String value to specify the user interface display.

    login_hint

    Supported

    String value that can be set to the ID the user uses to log in. For example, Bob or bob@example.com, depending on how the authentication node or module is configured to search for users.

    When provided as part of the OIDC Authentication Request, the login_hint is set as the value of a cookie named oidcLoginHint, which is an HttpOnly cookie (only sent over HTTPS).

    acr_values

    Supported

    Authentication Context class Reference values used to communicate acceptable LoAs that users must satisfy when authenticating to the OpenID provider.

    For more information, see The authentication context class reference (acr) claim.

    dtbs

    Not supported

    Data to be signed

    At present AM does not support LoA 4.

For access to a simple, non-secure GSMA Mobile Connect relying party sample, see How do I access and build the sample code provided for PingAM? in the Knowledge Base.